Minister: Blast involving Russian agents intended to occur elsewhere

Munitions explosions in the Czech Republic that the government blames on Russian agents was evidently not intended to occur on Czech territory, the minister of the interior, Jan Hamáček, said on Czech Television on Sunday.

Mr. Hamáček said the police were working on the assumption that the munitions were planned to explode later, after being transported to Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian arms dealer involved in the purchase, Emilian Gebrev, was poisoned in 2015 but survived.

The minister said that the Czech side had sufficient evidence that agents of Russia’s GRU were behind the incident in Vrbětice, Moravia in 2014 that left two people dead. The Prague government has expelled 18 Russian Embassy staff identified as spies.